Rage

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Emma

“ H ave you seen the new guards?” Belle, a tiny pixie of an omega, and my only friend, asked me breathlessly as we sat in the mess hall, eating stale bread and lukewarm soup.

Belle had only been in Hell for a few months, and even though she’d been through two induced heats, they hadn’t broken her yet. I didn’t know what she was here for, and I didn’t ask. That would require me telling my own story, and I didn’t want to terrify her. Belle still believed there was an alpha—or alphas—out there for her, somewhere, waiting. She just had to survive Hell.

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that a happy bond with an alpha was nothing more than a myth. A fairytale told to us when we were young to keep us docile and hopeful. I was proof of that.

“I have,” I told her. “What of them?”

Home , my brain whispered.

I told it to shut up.

“Oh.” Her face fell. Then she perked back up. “What did they look like?”

Three sets of eyes came back to me: cold, wintery grey, warm, glittering gold, and soft, dark brown. I shook my head to get rid of them.

“Big. Mean. Alpha-like,” I said shortly.

“Well, I heard that they refuse to take part in the…” she trailed off.

My chest clenched painfully. It couldn’t be true. No alpha would pass up on free, faux-willing pussy.

“The heats?” I asked, trying to keep my voice as gentle as possible for her.

She nodded. “Yeah. Marcy told Anna, who told me that when the guards were in orientation learning about them, they declared they wouldn’t take part in them, and almost came to blows with the warden.”

Now there was a vise gripping my heart, threatening to crush it.

“They must have an omega already,” I said, even though everything in me rejected it. But why? I had no claim on them. I wanted no claim. Or vice versa. It was good for us if they had an omega. Once an alpha claimed his omega, he couldn’t get it up for anyone else. It was why all the guards here were unbonded.

Except, probably, these three. God willing, their omega didn’t lead that horrible of a life.

My chest clenched again.

Because you want them , that annoying voice informed me.

I ignored it, forcing myself to chew and swallow the stale bread. I was going to need the energy when I escaped, even though I still had no plan.

“I don’t think so,” Belle whispered, glancing around. “Because, apparently, one of them was talking about an omega they met.” She looked at me meaningfully. “Referred to her as ‘ours.’”

Shit.

Everything stopped. The omegas eating at tables around us, the hum of the furnace somewhere far away. Just a terrifying stillness.

Not again.

That memory of a knot being forced inside me, the sting of a claiming bite.

Not again.

I breathed through my panic. It wouldn’t happen. I wouldn’t let it happen.

“Emma?” Belle reached a hand toward me. “Are you alright? You’ve just gone really pale.”

I needed to snap out of it. I needed to get out of here.

Actually.

A thought came to me.

Maybe I could use this to my advantage. They wanted an omega? They thought I was theirs? I’d give myself to them. Temporarily. For a price.

My freedom.

My opportunity came sooner than expected. I heard loud grunts and arguing by the door and turned to look.

The three alphas from earlier stood there, the tallest, scariest one looming over Bob and the other guards. The one with the golden eyes was staring directly at me, and when he caught my gaze, he winked.

A real, honest-to-fucking-god blush heated my cheeks, but I refused to look away. I wouldn’t be cowed. Maybe this wasn’t the best way to go about seducing my targets, but I didn’t know how to be another way. Not anymore.

After a brief discussion, Bob shrugged, jerking his head at the other guards, and one by one, they all departed, leaving us with the newcomers. Tension filled the air, and with it an unguarded excitement. When you’d been here as long as most of us had, and nothing new came along, something fresh felt exciting—even if it came in the form of alphas who would surely hurt you.

Except, if Belle were to be believed, these alphas wouldn’t hurt me.

“Give me a second,” I told her as I rose and grabbed my half-empty tray.

She put a hand on my arm. “What are you doing?”

Balancing the tray with one hand, I gently lifted her hand off my arm with the other. “Nothing for you to worry about.”

Because I’m going to get you out, too, somehow. I hadn’t planned on any dead weight or helping anyone other than myself, but I couldn’t leave her here. She wouldn’t survive. I’d help her escape.

I’d help them all escape.

Pushing that thought aside, I crossed the room to where the three alphas stood, aware of the other omegas’ eyes on me, their whispering. None of it mattered, not now that I had the three alphas’ attention. The scariest one raised an eyebrow, and I almost froze, overwhelmed once again by the intense look in his grey gaze. He wanted me, but he also wanted something from me. A wiser woman, a wiser omega, would sit her ass back down and let this plan go. But I wasn’t wise—I was desperate. They were my ticket out. I was sure of it.

Forcing myself to put one foot in front of the other, I drew my shoulders back and lifted my chin. The brown-eyed one, who’d smelled like cinnamon and spice, nodded in what might have been approval. Some of the tension slid out of my body and the remaining steps were easier to take.

“What do you need, kitten?” he asked me.

Well, that was an easy opening.

“You,” I said, and although I’d told myself I was going to be straightforward and transactional with this, my voice still came out husky and breathy. I could barely control myself now that I was surrounded by their scents.

Home , that voice in my head sighed.

She was getting harder to ignore.

Mr. Peat and Sugar coughed. “Well, that’s direct.”

Cinnamon and Spice gave him a warning look. “Quiet, Alec. It must have taken a lot to come here and tell us this. Didn’t it, kitten?” He turned back to me, a small but brilliant smile on his face.

“Yes,” I said despite myself, as though his mere presence was a generic form of Verital, the truth serum the cops had forced on me when I’d been found with that dead alpha. Unable to stop it, I shivered, briefly teased by old, frightening, angering memories. When I’d been both the most helpless and the most powerful I’d ever been.

“Good girl,” Peat and Sugar murmured. “So good of you, telling us the truth. That’s not easy, I know.”

“Such a good little kitten,” Cinnamon and Spice added. His voice so heavy with lust, it sounded more like, “such a good little pussy.”

I could imagine him saying it while I was naked and restrained, and the thought released slick from my core, wetting my thighs.

Ah, shit.

His words caressed me, and I wanted to lean into the praise, like the needy kitten he’d called me. But I was stronger than that, so I hardened my heart and ignored my pussy.

The grey-eyed giant interrupted. “Alec, Owen, she hasn’t told us what she needs us for. ”

I smiled at him, but it wasn’t sweet—it was all teeth.

“You’re right,” I said, standing tall even though, this close to his cold, ocean scent, I wanted to kneel at his feet. Everything in my body wanted to submit to these alphas, these alphas that smelled like?—

—I cut that thought off before it could go any further.

“You’re right,” I repeated. “I haven’t told you what I need you for.” I took a deep breath. “I need you to help me escape. In return, I’ll give you me. ”